Citizenship and Immigration Committee on May 28th, 2008

[Diane Finley, Conservative, Haldimand—Norfolk, ON]

I have a point of order, Mr. Chairman.

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

The minister has a point of order, so we'll stop the clock.

Minister, did you have a comment?

[Diane Finley, Conservative, Haldimand—Norfolk, ON]

Yes, Mr. Chairman. I believe that referring to the government in the terms the honourable member just used is inappropriate and unprofessional.

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

Order, please.

Mr. St-Cyr wishes to speak to that point of order.

[Thierry St-Cyr, Bloc, Jeanne-Le Ber, QC]

That is not even an issue. To my knowledge, witnesses are unable to raise a point of order; only members of the committee can do so. I do not understand why you have entertained a point of order being raised by a witness, albeit a minister.

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

That is probably a valid point, that witnesses don't bring up points of order. The chair probably should have been more vigilant; I'm told that the term “corrupt” is not appropriate to use at the committee level.

Let's not get bogged down here on these terms. Let's move on.

You have 52 seconds.

[Andrew Telegdi, Liberal, Kitchener—Waterloo, ON]

Well, you must have been taking counsel on the point of order. But let me say that the present Prime Minister and the front bench of cabinet have used that term hundreds of times in the previous Parliament.

The other issue I have, Madam Minister, is that you missed the target for this year's landing, at 237,000, even though you bumped up the family class.

The other one is that you created a crisis in the refugee determination system. We have a record backlog. It was something that was previously fixed. We have a backlog of 45,000-plus, and it's going to hit 62,000 this year. This has all happened under your watch. The backlog before the Conservatives assumed office was under 20,000.

Minister, how do you expect us to believe you can tackle something as complicated as Bill C-50 and what you're planning to do when your record is, first, that you missed your target, and second, that you have created a record backlog in the refugee appeal division?

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

Minister.

[Diane Finley, Conservative, Haldimand—Norfolk, ON]

It's important to recognize that the backlog we inherited from the previous government was over 800,000, and it is taking up to six years to process some applications.

[Some hon. members]

No, no.

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

Order, please. I would ask that the minister be given the opportunity—

[Daniel Petit, Conservative, Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles, QC]

Mr. Chairman, point of order. Is it possible to let the minister speak? Members are interrupting her, and I find this crass.

Please allow the minister to speak.

[Jim Karygiannis, Liberal, Scarborough—Agincourt, ON]

A point of order.

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

I'm not entertaining points of order on that—

[Jim Karygiannis, Liberal, Scarborough—Agincourt, ON]

Then why did you entertain it from the other side, Mr. Chair?

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

—except to say that the minister has to be given the opportunity—

[Jim Karygiannis, Liberal, Scarborough—Agincourt, ON]

Mr. Chair, if you're not entertaining points of order, then you shouldn't be entertaining them from the Conservative side. It shows your bias.

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

Order, please.

This is not going anywhere like this. I think we have to give the minister the opportunity to reply to the question. I would ask the members not to interrupt while the minister is speaking. She's not interrupting members.

Minister, go ahead, please.

[Diane Finley, Conservative, Haldimand—Norfolk, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I was asked about the number of people who were allowed to land here. In fact, because of the delays in processing caused by the backlog we inherited from the previous government, we have deliberately had to start tearing down the walls between the permanent and temporary streams.

If you'll check the numbers, you'll see that we allowed in record numbers of temporary foreign workers and foreign students. This is to compensate for the time it takes to process six-year-old applications, which can take twice as long, and by law we're required to process those applications, with few exceptions, in the order in which they were received.

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

Time has expired.

Mr. Carrier.

Before I go to you, sir, I think I should inform the committee that the video portion of our broadcasting is shut down, but we're still doing audio. There's a technical problem. I'm informed by the technical people that there's a problem with the video portion of it, but we are on track with the audio.

[Jim Karygiannis, Liberal, Scarborough—Agincourt, ON]

Mr. Chair, I have a point of order.

If that's the case, then why don't we adjourn until it gets back on?

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

We have the minister until five o'clock. I don't think there's any need to adjourn—

[Jim Karygiannis, Liberal, Scarborough—Agincourt, ON]

Put it to a vote, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

—unless there is a consensus among committee members that there should be adjournment.

Do you mean suspend or adjourn?

[Jim Karygiannis, Liberal, Scarborough—Agincourt, ON]

However you want to call it, sir. Until the video comes back on, let's suspend.